SAN BERNARDINO – Trial proceedings began Tuesday for a registered sex offender from Long Beach who faces charges alleging that he molested a girlfriend’s 8-year-old daughter during a fishing trip at Lake Gregory.

Prosecutors say David Ray Mills, the girl and her mother visited a cabin in Running Springs, when Mills took the girl on May 8 to go fishing at the lake.

Witnesses testified in San Bernardino Superior Court that they thought Mills and the girl were just playing at the lake at first. But then Mills, 50, began putting the girl, who wore a two-piece bathing suit, in poses and touching her inappropriately, testified Tanya Barela through a Spanish interpreter.

“I was able to see that he was putting his hands inside her bathing suit, in her bottom part,” Barela said. “The little girl was saying no. And she slapped him.”

Barela’s boyfriend, John Serrano, testified that he called authorities when he saw Mills touching the girl. Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the lake and detained Mills.

The Sun does not identify victims of sex-related crimes.

Deputy District Attorney Melissa Rodriguez told the jury, during her opening remarks, that Mills clearly crossed a line when he took suggestive photos of the girl and put suntan lotion on her chest under her bathing suit.

In interviews with authorities, Mills said he had a fantasy and was sexually excited, the prosecutor said.

“He admitted that he screwed up that day,” Rodriguez said.

Mills has pleaded not guilty to two counts of committing a lewd and lascivious act with a child, according to court records.

Mills’ lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Joel Agron, asked jurors to keep an open mind about the case, in his opening remarks.

“It’s not as simple as it sounds,” Agron said.

The girl told authorities she had sat on a wood post near the lake and had gotten splinters, Agron said. Mills was in a position of responsibility, helped the girl, and nothing sexual happened.

“She had to change her bathing suit because she had splinters in it,” said the defense lawyer.

Agron also pointed to the girl’s statement given to three different people – a sheriff’s deputy, a social worker and a prosecutor – during which she remained consistent and said that nothing out of the ordinary happened to her.

But on Tuesday, the girl testified from the witness stand that Mills had licked her thigh. Agron asked the girl if Mills had done anything bad to her or if people had told her that he did something bad.

“He did,” the girl responded. Agron asked the girl if she was sure. “Yes,” she said.

When asked what changed between her earlier statements that nothing had happened and her court testimony, the girl said: “I don’t know.”

Minutes earlier, the girl had answered questions from the prosecution that Mills had done nothing that she did not like and nothing that made her uncomfortable.

The girl’s mother, who is not being identified to protect the girl’s identity, also testified that the trio visited the cabin about 30 times, and she never saw Mills act inappropriately with her daughter.

When asked by the prosecution why she didn’t go on the fishing trip with Mills and her daughter, the mother responded: “I was exhausted, and I chose to go ahead and let them go.”